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Face ID isn’t as secure as fingerprint unlock

Jamie Wooten

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So we found out tonight that my daughter can unlock my wife’s iPhone 11 pro max with face unlock. After some research that’s a 1 in a million possibility.

Now my wife can’t pick up my daughters phone and unlock it. That’s just crazy! Just had to share.
 

strikeIII

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So we found out tonight that my daughter can unlock my wife’s iPhone 11 pro max with face unlock. After some research that’s a 1 in a million possibility.

Now my wife can’t pick up my daughters phone and unlock it. That’s just crazy! Just had to share.

If you have these enabled it will make Face ID more secure but more of a pita if when wearing sunglasses or a hat.
10c3540faede6885ec854a36792cdaf3.jpg
 

taz323

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So we found out tonight that my daughter can unlock my wife’s iPhone 11 pro max with face unlock. After some research that’s a 1 in a million possibility.

Now my wife can’t pick up my daughters phone and unlock it. That’s just crazy! Just had to share.

1 in a million, I will take those odds. as good as fingerprint is. I still prefer Face ID.
 

Rob Phillips

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Resetting Face ID might also fix the problem. Your wife will have to set up Face ID again afterwards.
 

scruffypig

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So we found out tonight that my daughter can unlock my wife’s iPhone 11 pro max with face unlock. After some research that’s a 1 in a million possibility.

Now my wife can’t pick up my daughters phone and unlock it. That’s just crazy! Just had to share.

If your wife and daughter were able to unlock each other’s devices right after setting up Face ID, you might want to re-setup Face ID again. Face ID is constantly learning.

“To improve unlock performance and keep pace with the natural changes of your face and look, Face ID augments its stored mathematical representation over time. Upon successful unlock, Face ID may use the newly calculated mathematical representation—if its quality is sufficient—for a finite number of additional unlocks before that data is discarded. Conversely, if Face ID fails to recognize you, but the match quality is higher than a certain threshold and you immediately follow the failure by entering your passcode, Face ID takes another capture and augments its enrolled Face ID data with the newly calculated mathematical representation. This new Face ID data is discarded after a finite number of unlocks and if you stop matching against it. These augmentation processes allow Face ID to keep up with dramatic changes in your facial hair or makeup use, while minimizing false acceptance.”

https://www.apple.com/business/docs/site/FaceID_Security_Guide.pdf#mn_p
 

anon(50597)

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According to Apple, someone has a 1 in 50,000 chance of having a fingerprint that could open your phone. If that’s true, Face ID is more secure.
 

Lee_Bo

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If you have these enabled it will make Face ID more secure but more of a pita if when wearing sunglasses or a hat.

I disagree. I set up FaceID without a hat and without my magnetic clip-ons on my glasses. FaceID unlocks my device while wearing a had AND with my clip-ons.

And yes, I’ve reset FaceID and set it back up 4 times.
 

strikeIII

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I disagree. I set up FaceID without a hat and without my magnetic clip-ons on my glasses. FaceID unlocks my device while wearing a had AND with my clip-ons.

And yes, I’ve reset FaceID and set it back up 4 times.
Depends on the Sunglasses. With Require Attention enabled it will not work with the sunglasses I use.
 

kataran

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I find Face ID very secure

At my age my face tends to droop when I sleep and when I first wake up I can’t unlock my X until I start to yawn and stretch my face

I thought it was my phone at first but after some trial and error I found that the cheeks are the tell in my identity
 

xanadome

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I would not at all be bothered by the level of security between FID and TID, let alone we were never informed how Apple reached the quantitative conclusion of 1 in a million vs. 1 in 50,000, etc.
The total security level of a device is determined by the weakest link in the various security chain. What about the possibility of somebody being able to hack into a passcode? What about the vulnerability of email password and credit card info saved in the device. I cannot immediately come up with a list of security vulnerabilities that is less than 1 in a million etc (that value alone is a mystery anyway), but I know there are many security vulnerabilities in any iPhone.
So, I am not bothered at all by this security issue but more interested in a level of convenience between the two. I use Apple Pay a lot (I am in Canada and you can use Apple Pay in a rundown Chinese food place in a small town, way out of place. For that, I prefer TID. But that does not mean I am not interested in FID. I am totally open-minded. But if I am going to buy an iPhone with FID, that is certainly not because of FID. My daughter bought an 11 Pro, and am (supposed to be :) getting feedback from her. I am currently using the 8.
 

Just_Me_D

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So we found out tonight that my daughter can unlock my wife’s iPhone 11 pro max with face unlock. After some research that’s a 1 in a million possibility.

Now my wife can’t pick up my daughters phone and unlock it. That’s just crazy! Just had to share.

How often does your daughter use your wife’s iPhone? If she uses it quite a bit then is it possible that she “set up an alternate appearance” in the Face ID and Passcode settings?
 

Jamie Wooten

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How often does your daughter use your wife’s iPhone? If she uses it quite a bit then is it possible that she “set up an alternate appearance” in the Face ID and Passcode settings?

No, we actually just got the phones about a week ago or so. It was just a random thing, picked up the phone and was like “wow”. Not a big deal, it just took us by surprise. Just wonder how often it happens to anyone else. lol.
 

Annie_M

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No, we actually just got the phones about a week ago or so. It was just a random thing, picked up the phone and was like “wow”. Not a big deal, it just took us by surprise. Just wonder how often it happens to anyone else. lol.

When our teenage our nieces got their brand new XS iPhones last year, we were not at all surprised when they figured out right at the get-go that they could open each others' iPhones. They weren't happy about this, because of a teenager's typical need for privacy and the ever-present sibling rivalry bs that they. keep alive and well. When considering which phone to get at the time, they were leery about FID, but they wanted the latest and greatest! It's really not been an issue, because they guard their phones with their lives! :D
 

Quis89

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No, we actually just got the phones about a week ago or so. It was just a random thing, picked up the phone and was like “wow”. Not a big deal, it just took us by surprise. Just wonder how often it happens to anyone else. lol.

That kind of makes sense if it's a new device. FaceID's accuracy improves over time as we use the device. If your wife and daughter look alike, it's likely their similarities are indistinguishable by FaceID but that should change as your wife uses the device more and it "learns" her appearance better.
 

Lee_Bo

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I'm not too worried about someone else being able to unlock my device. I have a face what will make an onion cry.
 

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